The Shock Doctrine

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All Rise...

JUDGE WILLIAM LEE HATES CAPITALISM BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING IN YOUR EMAILS.

The Charge

Disaster capitalism in action.

The Case

At the time of writing this review, the Occupy Wall Street demonstration has
been in effect for one month and appears to be picking up momentum worldwide.
Organizing this unorganized movement on the Internet, rallies are expected to
expand to more than 80 countries in mid-October. This is a protest against what
many believe is a corrupt and flawed economic system but one of the criticisms
of the OWS demonstration is the unclear goal and lack of specific demands by the
participants. Little wonder their goal is vague. How do you list your demands
against a system? Most people barely understand how the system even works.

Naomi Klein's 2007 book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster
Capitalism examines the political and economic history of the last 40 years
as a way to explain how democratic nations have strayed from serving the will of
the people in favor of enriching the lives of the elite. I haven't read the book
but the documentary film The Shock Doctrine works quite well to summarize
Klein's thesis and serve as the introduction to the more detailed work. This is
clearly and unapologetically a leftist argument so brace yourselves,
neoconservatives.

Directors Michael Winterbottom (The Trip)
and Mat Whitecross (The Road to
Guantanamo) combine video from Klein's speaking tour with historical
newsreel and archival footage to illustrate the author's arguments.
Approximating the structure of the book, the film introduces viewers to the
leading economic theory of the latter twentieth century and show how it was
applied in the real world. It's a concise and chilling recounting of the U.S.
influence upon other countries during and after the Cold War.

Milton Friedman and the Chicago School economists constitute the equivalents
of mad scientists in this monster movie. Friedman's promotion of radical free
market policies was favored by leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret
Thatcher. The problem for both elected leaders was how to convince the people
that selling off public assets and eliminating price controls on essentials was
good for them. The solution is what Klein describes as a form of economic
"shock therapy" where disasters or great social upheavals distract the
people so that they aren't aware of the great theft that's happening to them.
When the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami washes away the homes of poor people living
on a public beach, that's when real estate companies can claim land for private
development. When Iraq's infrastructure is bombed to smithereens during an
invasion, companies like Halliburton get billions of dollars in contracts to
rebuild it.

Friedman's supporters and disciples learned that war is the most effective
distraction. Augusto Pinochet's 1973 coup d'état in Chile serves as an
early example where sudden political change and economic change come hand in
hand. The military dictator's supposed fight against Communism introduced
free-market reforms recommended by the "Chicago boys" and any
dissidents were made to "disappear" by his secret police. In Russia,
Boris Yeltsin's rule was notable for his defense against an attempted coup in
1991, another one in 1993 when he ordered the army to fire on the Russian White
House and the invasion of Chechnya. He promoted privatization during his reign
and effectively put the nation's most profitable industries into the hands of a
few oligarchs. Moscow has the distinction of being the city with the most
billionaires in the world.

The Chicago School field tested their theories in foreign lands and then
applied it in the English-speaking democratic world. The film argues that the
enforcement lessons learned in the tests with military strongmen in repressive
states were adopted by the U.S. and U.K. A good deal of effort is spent looking
at the CIA's torture techniques as they evolved from experiments in the 1960s.
This is correlated to how a population is "tortured" by repressive
authorities until they learn to accept a new reality, or a new economic policy.
This is, perhaps, the hardest element to accept objectively as it does imply a
deliberate and concerted effort on the part of the wealthy and powerful to
subjugate their fellow citizens. How thin is the line between greedy and evil?
That's for individual viewers to decide but the film paints a pretty compelling
picture.

Assembled from video camera footage of Klein's speaking engagements and
historical newsreels, the picture quality on this DVD ranges in quality from
passable to mediocre. A few interviews fair the best but a lot of the archival
clips are scratched and blurry. The image doesn't detract from the impact of
this filmic essay's content though. The audio is a respectable stereo mix that
lets the narration by Kieran O'Brien (9
Songs) and various interviews be heard clearly. The trailer is the only
extra on the disc.

The Shock Doctrine is a look at recent history with an eye to
explaining the connection between politics and economics. It is disturbing to
think how an idea—apparently a flawed and dangerous one—can be
adopted so widely with such devastating results. There is a scene where Friedman
receives the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. I was pleased to see that a
protester had infiltrated the ceremony and shouted at the economist when he took
the stage. That young man represented a generation that felt powerless against a
system that rewards avarice and perpetuates corruption and abuse. He had no way
to strike against the system except to speak out and cause a scene and I am glad
he did so. Remember to check your camping gear before heading to the rally.